The Builders is one of the very first Masonic books I have come to read. To this day it is the finest one I've come across so far and Brother Joseph Fort Newton is one of our finest Masonic scholars.
He was born on July 21, 1876 at Decatur, Texas; his father died six years later.
The copy I have is "loaned" to me by Bro Armin Santos (Lincoln Lodge #34 F & AM and Western Luzon Bodies, A & ASR) and was presented to him by WM Adrian Snider on the occasion of his raising at Lincoln Lodge #34 on 22nd of September 1979.
This edition was published by the Supreme Council, 33rd degree, for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America, through its Committee on Masonic Education for the primary purpose of making available "to our membership an excellent piece of reference and study media that covers the history, prophecy, interpretation and philosophy of our great Fraternity."
It continues: "It is hoped that each recipient of this volume will read and reread it and encourage members of his family, and particularly our young people, to read the book and thereby obtain a better understanding of what so many of us have come to appreciate over a long period of years.
"Our forefathers built well when they formed this organization. It is our duty to transmit it, unimpaired, to those who follow."
According to Ill Stanley F. Maxwel, 33rd degree, Sovereign Grand Commander, Supreme Council (A & ASR, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, USA), in his preface to this edition:
"Few men have delved so deeply into Masonic Philosophy as Newton. None has written about it more inspiringly. The reader of The Builders will be richly rewarded for the hours spent with it and will have found a friend to which he will return often for the sheer joy of losing himself for a time in an aura of its lofty idealism."
Ill Alphonse Cerza, 33rd degree, Valley of Chicago said, in the preface of the same edition:
"If it had not been for Freemasonry and its ideals of brotherhood the world would never have had a Joseph Fort Newton, the author of this book and one of the ablest and most popular clergyman of his day.
He was always proud to tell how his father, Lee Newton, a Confederate soldier, became a Mason in a military lodge and wore a red string in the lapel of his coat to indicate his membership in our gentle Craft.
The young soldier became a prisoner, at Arkansas Post, and was taken to Rock Island, Illinois. While in prison camp he became seriously ill; he made himself known as a fellow-Mason to one of the officers of the prison.
Taking compassion on the young man, the brother took the sick soldier home and nursed him back to health. When the war ended the officer loaned Lee Newton enough money to enable him to get back to Texas."
In his autobiography, "River of Years" (1946), Joseph Fort Newton said, "This experience of my father, when I learned about it, had a great influence upon my life."
At the age of fourteen, when his maternal grandfather died, for the first time he was exposed to deep personal sorrow. It has a great influence on his life because his religious faith supported him, and as he explained years later, "Suddenly all my trouble, all my fear, left me. Life itself seemed to speak to my spirit. God became very near, very real, not aweful, but gentle as a Friend."
One day he overheard his mother vocally praying and asking God's blessing on him. It was a deeply moving moment and he then decided to become a minister.
But it was while living in Dixon, Illinois that he joined Friendship Lodge No 7, on May 28, 1902. Later he was to state that what impressed him most about the Craft in those days was that at the lodge meetings he met men from all the churches except one.
Later on he was to say about these members, "In their churches they could not agree about the teachings of the Bible; in the Lodge they could not disagree, because each one was allowed to interpret it the way his heart liked best, and asked to allow others the same right; a secret almost too simple to be found out."
As a 33rd degree Scottish Rite Mason (crowned on October 20, 1933 by the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction), he said in his principal address at the cornerstone laying ceremony of the great new Masonic Temple, in Detroit, Michigan on September 18, 1922:
"As Craft Masonry deals with the making of individual character, so the Scottish Rite has to do with the development of society, the organization of personal righteousness into social ministry and world order. It dramatizes the ultimate truth, so far as man may know it, bringing parable, symbolism, and emblem to the service of that ineffable vision which gives growth and meaning to mortal life. For richness of suggestion, for beauty of poetic imagery, it is difficult to imagine anything more resplendent than the degrees of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. It is the great temple where truth is divested of superstition, and men learn in fellowship what none may know alone." (Italics supplied. Mod.)
Brother Joseph Fort Newton laid down his working tools in this transitory life on January 24, 1950 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His written words and wisdom remain with us, including the following from his autobiography:
"Man was not meant to be a cringing being, eaten up by anxiety, shut up a prisoner in silent loneliness, living in blind cruelty. He was meant for great adventures, if he has the insight to see the laws of life and the key of kindness to unlock the doors; and in his quest for the best in others he will discover something in himself not guessed before. For each of us, through we may not be clever or commanding, but only average and unknown, life can be winged and wonderful, full of meaning and music, if we have the faith to trust the God who made us, and the wisdom to live, love, and learn."
My thanks to my Brother, Armin, for "perpetually loaning" this book to me when I was in the treshold of Masonry.
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